Everyman doing his Sunday stuff for us.
Not Everyman at his hardest today, I had no holdups whilst solving, usual rhymes, primary letters and name check – over to you to see follow on or other links
ACROSS
1. Devoured one sheep, noisily (3,2)
ATE UP
Sounds like A TUP – a sheep
4. You shouldn’t have small infatuation in Australian state (8)
TASMANIA
TA – you shouldn’t have & S(mall) & MANIA
8. Tipsy tippler, tattler giving you stuff and nonsense (7-7)
PRITTLE – PRATTLE
A tipsy [TIPPLER TATTLER]*
10. Sporting Coe let in: it’s how parliamentarians are chosen (8)
ELECTION
11. Exactly zero t-shirts etc. returned (4-2)
SPOT ON
It’s NO TOPS – t-shirts say reversed
12. Translation of banal epic not up to the job (9)
INCAPABLE
15. With coins of little value, Everyman’s heading to find boozer (5)
SOUSE
SOUS – old coins & head of E(veryman)
17. Heavyweight’s disheartened, Sonny Liston’s fourth struggle (5)
TYSON
Well it could be Mike or Fury but a struggling [disheartened SO(n)NY & the fourth of (lis)T(on)]* Not one of Everyman’s easiest to explain in a blog
18. Cuckoo, pigeon and tit moving stealthily (9)
TIPTOEING
[PIGEON TIT]* gone cockoo
19. Aim to express disapproval (6)
OBJECT
21. Money changing hands for pudding (8)
TURNOVER
Double definition, my last one in as I was looking for a deeper clue with a Left/Right hand switch in some way
24. At length, a child trained hairy bovines (8,6)
HIGHLAND CATTLE
A trained [AT LENGTH A CHILD]*
25. Son caused online trouble, proceeded without urgency (8)
STROLLED
S(on) & TROLLED – caused trouble on line, fortunately something FifteenSquared rarely has trouble with
26. Gold, Dutch and Italian, in financial examination (5)
AUDIT
AU – gold & D(utch) & IT(alian)
DOWN
1. Growth in understanding (12)
APPRECIATION
2. Worthy folks incense me terribly (9)
EMINENCES
3. In France, slight appetite, taking only part (5)
PETIT
Only part – hidden in apPETITe
4. Where to cook morsel for Tolkien’s hero (3,6)
THE HOBBIT
THE HOB is where you can cook & BIT – morsel
5. Either side in scrimmage might be hurt (4)
SORE
These usually catch me until I have the crossing letters – it’s S OR E – the ends of S(crimmag)E
6. A little bean tip as topping in canapé (9)
ANTIPASTO
Hidden in beAN TIP AS TOpping
7. Opening part of chain letter (5)
INLET
Another hidden – part of chaIN LETter
9. Short fellow inserting limb in long johns? (12)
UNDERGARMENT
Def by example – UNDER – short and ARM – limb inserted in GENT – fellow
13. Not starting rhinoscopic process, finally wanting changes for one with ‘incredible’ nasal abnormality (9)
PINOCCHIO
Cryptic/jocular def. No start to R(hinoscopic) or end of (proces)S so a changed [(r)HINO(s)COPIC]*. Tricksy I felt for an Everyman.
14. Former husband rapped and sermonized (9)
EXPOUNDED
EX – former husband say & POUNDED – rapped
16. Far from welcome seeing football team gathering in vain: not half (9)
UNINVITED
Half of [IN Vain] inside UNITED – football team say
20. Mutual club? (5)
JOINT
22. Natal’s yammering animal – large antelope, primarily? (5)
NYALA
Everyman primary letter clue, you knew it would turn up eventually.
23. Issue a reproach when fibber’s shown up (4)
RAIL
Thanks flashling for your entertaining blog.
I was held up in the SW as I misspelt PINOCCHIO and didn’t check the parsing.
EMINENCES favourite for the chuckle-worthy, concise clue. Liked ATE UP for similar reasons. Nicely hidden and misdirected INLET.
AUDIT is all symbols or first letters. I imagine that D for Dutch and IT for Italian are on some list somewhere, maybe just abbreviations in Chambers?
We did this one while travelling around 4a in our campervan – at Cradle Mountain, if I recall correctly. I wonder why countries and US states are usually defined just by the word “state” while Aussie ones seem to need the qualifier. Can’t remember a lot more about it, so it must have been reasonably straightforward. Thanks, b Everyman and flashling.
Liked ATE UP, SPOT ON, UNDERGARMENT and UNINVITED.
Thanks, Everyman and flashling!
PS: TassieTime@2
‘They’ are ‘The States!’ 🙂
Tougher than average for me, probably due to the words I didn’t know: tup, hob, and PRITTLE-PRATTLE; the clues for TYSON and PINOCCHIO were tricky as well! UNDERGARMENT gave me a little chuckle when I got it. Thanks flashling for the lucid blog.
Got off to a slow start with this one only getting 6 answers ( three across and three down) on first pass. Then got PRITTLE PRATTLE (though not seen the term with the first word) which helped me get HIGHLAND CATTLE and the rest went in quite quickly although took me ages to realise that “cuckoo” was an anagram signifier and get TIPTOEING
Helped to get ATE UP by having heard a program on R4 earlier that morning talking about getting the tups in for winter.
Liked THE HOBBIT, UNDERGARMENT, PINOCCHIO.
There were 4 double definition type clues. I often find them difficult even when I realise that they are a DD if I can’t think of the word meaning both – and I needed the crosses to get them today.
However I finished the puzzle on Sunday morning without using any aids so I have sent it off to enter for a prize.
Thanks Everyman and flashling
Thanks for the blog, another very sound puzzle , rhinoscopic is a very good spot for PINOCCHIO but I agree that the r and s removal is a bit involved .
ANTIPASTO is very well hidden , we have two hidden clues in a row, both good but a bit clumsy. Not heard of PRITTLE-PRATTLE , it is in Chambers and I like these old words. TASMANIA for our regular contributor and it should make Jay’s streamlined list . EAT UP my very weak suggestion for a follow-on clue.
Good luck Fiona Anne @5 I have won Everyman and Azed once each since the prizes began again.
Good fun I thought. I also noted ANTIPASTO was a clever hidden. I like hiddens to cut through as many words as possible, and four is a fine effort. Felt a little uncomfortable that the next clue was also a hidden. Not sure why EX in 14d is “husband” specifically, “partner” might have been better.
Grid watchers will enjoy today’s offering. Don’t see Azed though?
?
Roz @6, thanks, I spotted TASMANIA. TYSON (I had assumed in was Mike) also made it to the people list following Lenin, Proust, and Bede. A curious sequence 😉
Thanks to Everyman and Flashing.
I have never come across D meaning Dutch. It is usually Germany, of course.
It isn’t in my aged Chambers either.
But I googled this and found one site (Abbreviation Finder) that does indeed say that D is an abbreviation for Dutch, so I suppose it’s OK.
Anna @9 D for Dutch is in my Chambers, 2016
Jay @ 10
Ah, thanks, Jay.
Anna @9 D=Deutsch is more common I think , but Dutch does come right at the end in my Chambers93, the first edition and definitive volume for all crosswords.
Jay@7 , Azed is a standard plain 12×12 today, this particular type known as the four tens grid.
@Roz how do you know Chambers93 is definitive for crosswords? I don’t own a copy but notice https://amp.theguardian.com/crosswords/2022/apr/24/azed-crossword-2602 recommends 2014.
I tried to work a Roman numeral into UNINVITED (well 6 is roughly half a football team) until the penny dropped.
Max @13, to the best of my knowledge the reference dictionaries for the main broadsheets are Times – Collins, Telegraph – Chambers, Guardian – Chambers, Collins, and Oxford. Some barred puzzles like Azed will specify a specific edition.
I noted that this one was more difficult than usual for me, but an enjoyable solve.
I liked the cuckoo, pigeon and tit to give TIPTOEING, and I’m another to highlight the very well-hidden ANTIPASTO.
Thanks Everyman and flashling.
Anna@9 : How old is your Chambers dictionary ? D for Dutch is in mine, a 2003 edition.
Having lived in The Netherlands for many years in the 80’s and thinking about the puzzle and the blog, I was very often intrigued by often seeing a person, at foodstalls, downing a SOUSEd ( raw) herring in one swoop ! Not for me !
Not in the clue or the answer, but NYALA is also a place, so with his strict rules announced recently, I guess it can’t go in Jay’s geographic list.
Thanks Everyman and flashling.
Flea @ 17
My Chambers is 1988, so pretty ancient.
They are quite keen on raw (or fairly raw) fish here, too (Suomi-Finland)
Dutch was the first foreign language I learned on my own, ie not in school. I still have the book, purchased from Smiths in Purley around 1965. Fang is much more demanding 🙂
Liked SPOT-ON, TASMANIA.
Thanks, both.
Max@13 do not take me too seriously , C93 is my own edition so all setters should use it as their guide.
Azed is worth a look today. PDM you have 19D , MrEssexboy you have 1D and 14D .
Thanks Roz @20, I’ll have a look.
If we can allow follow-on clues to skip a week (or three), then we have ANTIPASTO today (3982) to go with ANTIPASTI two weeks ago (3980), and ATE UP today to go with ATE AWAY (3978).
More speculatively, this week’s ANTIPASTO is the latest in a string of clues, threading through several weeks, referencing meal courses (including AFTERS/DESSERTS in 3977/3976). We also had an ‘inventors’ string recently. Perhaps the strings are there all the time, in all the puzzles, but we only notice them when they are in specific vibrational states.
Anna @18, yes, much more difficult to gab on in Fang 🙂
I’m not really into Tolkien, but I did like THE HOBBIT. Thanks E & F.
Roz@13 and Jay@15 Thanks. I’ve been considering getting a copy for general use for a while so good to know I don’t need to put too much effort into chasing a particular edition.
[Azed has just appeared online]
Max@22 my original fell apart , the sprogs got me a replacement C93 , mint condition , they said less than £5 , people have just left them on shelves so the second hand market has numerous perfect copies.
MrEssexboy@21 I have been aware of the general food clues but you have much more detail. Antipasto(i) is pretty common across all puzzles, must fit for certain awkward letter combinations.
Anna@18 : Dutch was the first language I learned from a private teacher / both my sons lived in Purley at one time !
Meant to say last time we met INLET was in a 15^2 debate : “INLET” versus “inset” – Guardian Maskarade Xmas 22 competition – the ” incomplete clues” section. No one could have STROLLED into those incomplete clues.
In my opinion, Souse is too difficult for what is supposed to be a simple puzzle. If both the answer and the parsing require knowledge of obscure terms then it’s to difficult. At least it was for me, and that’s what counts.
[Max@22, you could also consider the Chambers app: £8, more portable than the paper version, useful search tool/cheat.]
[ Roz, my Chambers (still with its cover on, sort of) is 1983. I don’t know why you think it’s OK to use your new-fangled one. ]
I agree with Roz@6 – this was another good one from Everyman. And thanks, flashling, for your excellent blog; I needed it for the parsing of 13d PINOCCHIO and 17a TYSON, where I had heavyweight doing double duty as ton around the S and Y from SonnY, with the fourth of Liston unexplained – doh.
Cellomaniac , mine is The Chambers Dictionary , first edition of the definitive volume. You must have Chambers English Dictionary or Chambers 20th Century Dictionary , these were vastly inferior prototypes.
You can pick up a hard back Chambers 93 (THE Chambers Dictionary) on Amazon right now for under three quid; probably the only dictionary you’ll ever need!
The sprogs said mine was less than £5 and it is hard back, perfect condition , still with the dust covers. I will look after this one better, it is not allowed to go to the beach.
Must get a chambers myself. Come to that I don’t own any dictionaries other than a very out of date electronic one on a computer I can barely get to turn on these days.
Roz and Jay, I have to admit that I mainly use my Chambers (it’s the 20th Century one) for Scottish words when playing Scrabble. Everyone has their biases – my “definitive” dictionary is the two-volume SOED. (I also have a 1904 Webster’s International Dictionary of the English Language on its original wrought-iron stand, inherited from my grandfather, but I only refer to it occasionally for old times’ sake.)
[Thanks Roz@20 for the nudge to Azed. Not so scared of him anymore. 19D a clue to my taste.]
Cellomaniac, the two volume SOED is a fine tome. Mine is from 1973, edited by the fourth OED editor, one C.T. Onions. Your old Webster’s is a treasure for sure
Like paddymelon @1, I misspelled PINOCCHIO, but I still dashed this off in 22 minutes. The Everyman remains a lone beacon of success in an arid, desolate week.
A belated addition to the discussion on crossword dictionaries – I’ve just found this post by Hugh Stephenson, the Guardian’s crossword editor: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2013/jun/04/1
“Crossword editors can no longer defend their decisions by invoking Chambers as the ultimate authority on all crossword questions.”
Some very easy clues but didn’t like 8a
Rob.
Got this in one sitting! Great start for April Fool’s Day. Thanks all.
Quite a number that I either couldn’t or didn’t bother parsing, including the puppet. I thought ‘tup’ was what a ram does to lady sheep but it seems it’s also the old boy himself.
The device in ‘sore’ is getting a bit of a workout. I quite like it.
Nice to find something easy and uncontroversial in the Herald after a rather tumultuous week!
Incidentally, are there any other words in which the letter U appears 4 or more times?
Just wondering why the NZ comments have yesterday’s date and the times are all wrong.
It is April 1 here and I am writing this at 2:50. Wonder what it will say.
For those of us Kiwis who worked this morning, this was a a welcome relief this evening.
Liked Tyson because it was clever, clear, and uncontrived.